Monday, June 27, 2016

And propel them over the water and land for about 2 hours while we spectators drink beer, shoot cannons, and ride our own strange contraptions.

Such as this electric monowheel.

Mango wheat beer is smooth and packs a pretty good punch, but given a choice I think I'd have preferred an oatmeal stout.

Proving that the nuts don't fall far from the tree, my daughter want's to do this next year as a participant. We're thinking her and some of her friends as Disney princesses on an aligator themed craft. Putting a dummy of a small child in the alligator's mouth is the kind of completely tasteless thing that wins you big style points in this event. We'll see.

But then we always knew that capitalists were better at managing money than socialists.

His recent use of a teleprompter suggests that he has hired a speechwriter which is a positive sign. No one person can be an expert on all topics and even with a wicked way with words, he needs help putting together a complex speech. So it seems he knows how to delegate. Good.

Against all dire predictions of the chattering classes and the (obviously) better judgement of the political elites, Britain is leaving the EU:

It's not hard to see a line of northern European countries looking at this and thinking "Why not us as well?". The architects of the EU envisioned a unified Europe which is a good thing, and have produced the worlds largest copy of Venezuela, complete with an invading foreign army on the South and an ambitious empire builder on the East against which they seem to be powerless.

Now comes the dicey part where the Brits, having thrown off one form of tyranny, are now free to replace it with one of their own devising. I wish them the best of luck with that. History does not encourage optimism but hey! they could get lucky. An opportunistic and economically literate U.S. President or candidate would be over there right now, trade agreements in hand lining up the deals that generate the wealth, or at least would have a qualified advisor doing this.*

Over here one could easily see the King replaced by any of several people including His Serenely Oblivious Majesty King O'Bama I, Hillary (I am not a crook!) Clinton, and any of several leaders of the GOP establishment.

Seems like a lot of us peasants are in fact Mad As Hell and Not Going To Take It Any More.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The annual Kinetic Sculpture Race will be held in Longmont at Union Reservoir this Saturday with the starting cannon (that would be me) fired at 1 PM and the finish cannon fired at 4 PM. Features include clever kinetic sculptures, cleverly costumed sculpture crews, a kids recycled raft race, and a flaming dragon boat. Beer will be available.

On average, Democrats (that’s my team*) use guns for shooting the innocent. We call that crime.
On average, Republicans use guns for sporting purposes and self-defense. [insert ellipsis here]
So it seems to me that gun control can’t be solved because Democrats are
using guns to kill each other – and want it to stop – whereas Republicans are using guns to defend against Democrats.

RTWT, it's short and to the point. Also keep in mind that Mr. Adams is a skilled persuader and is thus probably trying to sell you something.

So a Muslim shoots his way into a gay bar and kills 49 people. The MSM describes this as;

1. Identity. He did it because he was inspired to Homophobia by racist Republicans and the NRA made him buy the assault rifle. This works pretty well and is backed up by a parade of Donk senators providing a gabfest in the Senate calling for bans on guns, Republicans, and the NRA.

2. Analogy. Some people have pointed out that the shooters religion demanded that he do this. The lefties counter by calling these people Islamophobes (identity).

3. Reason. A number of people have pointed out factors like the club being a gun-free area with only one person breaking that rule and suggesting that an armed "designated driver" type or 2 or 4 might have helped. Mentioned less often was the police response time of 3 hours, and the actions of at least one of the club goers in blocking an exit door out of fear that the shooter might use it. As mentioned above; useless. How often has this information been published?

4. Definition. Mostly centered around the shooters use of a Sig, and not an AR. Even the hard core gunnies will tell you that this is a trivial difference right up there with someone making a point that you were run over and killed by the drunk driver of an Accord rather than a Camry.

So far the anti-gunners are winning on points. It seems to have occurred to some that the left values a dead gay over a live one since a dead gay is a greater victim than a live one, and not everyone in the gay community is on board with this.

What next? Gays joining the NRA and voting Republican? Next thing you know, blacks and Hispanics will figure out the same thing.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The company said Mateenhad been subject to a detailed screening and checks by U.S. law enforcement, which reported no findings to G4S.
G4S first screened Mateen when he was hired in 2007 and then again in 2013 as part of an annual re-screening of a percentage of employees.
The
screenings included a psychometric test, a drug test, a 7-year criminal
history, employment and education check, credit report, social security
and driver’s license check and a physical fitness test.
He received a firearms license issued by the state of Florida and a security officers’ license when he was hired in 2007.

Seeing how well this worked, the Donks want to impose the same regimen on everyone attempting to buy a gun. The no-brain solution is to simply refuse gun sales or possession to Democrats and Muslims.

Adams is a trained persuader and has been impressed with Trumps abilities in the same area. What I noticed is the way he phrased the questions. Still, I don't think he got a wrong answer. Go read his comments on Trumps abilities. Oh yes, and buy his book.

Disclaimer: He's not paying me to endorse his book, but he did persuade me to buy it. He hasn't persuaded me to read it yet, that being obviously a much lower priority than getting me to buy it. It is in the queue.

Pravda On The PlatteThe Denver Post is running a poll on the advisability of bringing back the old AWB from the '90's. Remember that the old ban did essentially nothing beyond driving some cosmetic changes in gun styling. Given a shot at another one I'm sure any new one would be both more draconian and at the same time sillier than the original. Conneticut currently sees no functional difference between a Hi Point .380 cal carbine and a modern SAW.

When I checked this morning the poll was running 85/15 against such an idea. If we're lucky, the Donks will put it into their party platform and shout it to the skies. At a time when the Ferguson Effect is making the notion of police protection ever more problematic, the peasants are busily arming themselves against criminal and terroristic incursions and are not fooled by exhortations that disarming the victims will somehow deter the aggressors.

Polls like this are generally closed shortly after opening and given the current results, I expect this one will be closed and the results buried shortly.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Only 29% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the
U.S. according to the Gallup poll conducted during the first week of
June.

And yet the presidents approval rating is about 55%. I suppose everyone bought in to the "it's Bush's fault" line from 2008 but why has no one asked him why Bush seems to be able to have a greater influence over U.S. affairs than he does at this late date?

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Update to previous post. I got the throttle working and put a dab of gas in the thing. That and a bit of ether and it fired right up. NOTE: The old snow blower had no idle setting and the carb has no idle controls so I guess one must hold the throttle open until I can come up with something.

Next item is that the fuel line leaks probably from the tight bend in it at the carb. Need slightly longer fuel line. This is also why your first run is done with a limited fuel supply.

Lastly the friction coefficient between the roller and the tire isn't as high as I had expected. It works, but slips rather more than I was expecting.

When I took off for a trip around the block, that roller was uniformly rusty. The tire on the other hand seems to show no effect at all from the rubbing, suggesting that the rubber compound is hard as rocks. I plan to install a street tire. Turning the roller down a bit and adding some traction groove probably won't hurt either.

One other minor thing is that the spring that disengages the motor seems to be just a tad weak in the face of the vibration. Easily adjusted.

So ISIS has made a strike in the U.S. and killed 50 people. Gays in a club. Leave it to the Armies of Allah to strike the softest target they can find with great success.

As a follow up the news services have interviewed the highest ranking Imam they could find in the area and his first reaction is to call for more gun control in a state where the joke goes that everybody has a gun. Anti-gun people were standing ready to ask the same until he showed up. I wonder if they will fall in line behind him.

Just to make sure that advocates really want more gun control in the wake of this, the same Imam has also described the killing of 50 gays as an "act of compassion" so I suppose if you really support the gays, you'll back more gun control so that the bravely compassionate will be able to bestow their compassion with less fear of being stopped.

Meantime some fellow was stopped in Santa Monica on his way to the L.A. Gay Pride parade carrying firearms and Tannerite. The media are describing his stuff as an "arsenal" which is Cal-speak for two or more guns. No further info as yet but with everybody o edge, I suspect he'll be in the joint being investigated for some time.

The Imam seems to be solidly in the Hillary camp on guns. Let's see what Trump has to say, hopefully with some help from some cooler heads.

As the father of a daughter, I don't see this as any kind of problem at all. Where were these things 15 years ago when we needed them. Mr. Sharkey obviously does not have a daughter. Or a social life, thus he calls for government regulation. Anyone see a problem with the government regulating the manufacture and sales of sex bots? If they get defined as medical or therapeutic devices, do you think Obamacare will pay for them? No matter how horny you claim to be?

I could see a demand among the elderly as well with the wives supporting this if it distracts the old coot she's married to. Additional big time points if it can be trained to run a vacuum and take out the trash. Probably want a burka to throw over it if it's going outside for any reason though, otherwise all the teenage boys will be volunteering for dog walking jobs on trash day.

The Vatican has come out opposed to Trump's proposed wall along our southern border while sporting one of their own 60 ft high around the Vatican, and now this news that the DNC will be installing a "no-scale" wall around the Democratic convention.

Probably to keep out the "undocumented delegates", the racists.

The Republicans will probably do the same in an attempt to prevent a recreation of the "Storming of the Winter Palace" by Bernie's Bolsheviks.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

According to experts* I know in the fields of theology and temporal metaphysics, Time was originally invented so that everything wouldn't happen at once.

To my own admittedly limited observation and expertise in either of those fields, I'd have to say that Time 1.0 doesn't work. Just this Saturday alone I have enough potential tasks to occupy at least 2 people the whole day. Of course it's possible that some of this is due to a late Spring or possibly the coming of the dreaded Election Year, but the best theory so far is that Elon Musk is right, we're living in a computer simulation and said simulation has a predictable collection of bugs in it. Time is thus not Time 1.0 (released) but actually Time Beta .6 or something. Still in development ya know?

*They say they are, and use long, complicated words to back themselves up. How am I to argue? The climate change people are childlike by comparison.

In the period from 1865 forward, since former slaves were now permitted to own and carry guns, the southern states came up with a number of ways to limit this practice. Most commonly they required anyone wishing to buy or carry a pistol to be certified by the local law enforcement as to their "good character" and/or real need. Needless to say no blacks seemed to meed the sheriffs standards for character and as long as you hadn't actually been lynched, you obviously had no need.

Lawmakers are free to enact “any prohibition or restriction a state
may choose” on the carrying of concealed guns, Judge Fletcher said.
A Second Amendment right to carry a firearm openly in public may
exist, but the Supreme Court hasn't answered that question, Judge
Fletcher wrote.

I had thought that Harris had established a right to carry but I could be wrong. As to concealed carry, that has been a state prerogative for some time with several state constitutions repeating the Second Amendment pretty much verbatim but adding a clause noting that the right to bear arms does not cover concealed carry.

The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 7-4
ruling, upheld a California law requiring residents to show “good cause”
for carrying a concealed handgun.
Under the California law, personal safety alone doesn't qualify as good cause, which is defined by county sheriffs.

I had always thought that defending my life was about as good a cause as any. Of course the old medieval standard was that your life had more value if you were a member of the nobility and that seems to still be in place.

If there was any doubt before, El Prez just endorsed Hill to succeed him and immediately had a closed meeting with A.G. Lynch. It's probably fair to assume that no matter how big a pile of incriminating evidence gets dropped on the A.G.'s desk, studying the offerings will run to after the elections, and if she wins, will run to the inauguration at which time it will be announced that nothing in the evidence rises to the level of criminal misconduct.

Of course if she loses, Obama will be overjoyed to toss her to the sharks. No skin off his nose at that point.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Possibly the future of a rather limited sort of transportation anyway.

Back story: I was soliciting for a bicycle to be used as a parts donor for a different project and I got a Mongoose (Wal Mart) 26" metrosexual off road bike. Turned out to be unsuitable for the original project, but it cleaned up enough to be rideable. Also some 2 winters ago my old snow blower fell apart and I replaced it. Being me, I removed the motor which still ran well, before tossing the rest.

In my second retirement I got bored and got looking at the junk lying about and voila! instant project.

When I was in Saigon, the commonest form of motor transport was a cruiser frame bicycle with a small 2-stroke motor mounted to the handlebars. When a large lever was pushed forward, the crankshaft was pressed against the front tire, and the motor pulled the bike along at 15-20 mph. The motor assembly was from Solex, famous maker of French carburettors. The exhaust pipes were quite long and extended almost to the pavement so as to keep ones clothing from getting a layer of oil on it.

Kits like this would be illegal in the U.S. with the 2-stroke motor, but there are similar kits that mount to the rear wheel and use 4-srtoke motors available at what I think of as exorbitant prices. My old blower was a 2-stroke, but I have access to specially blended oils that burn very clean.

2 nights work, and I've got the motor mounted:

It hangs on a large bolt and swings to the rear to engage the tire. I will probably also want to change the tires to something smoother downstream as the engagement on that knobby is shall we say, a bit rough.

I need to make a bracket for the fuel tank and install a throttle cable. The bike is fully suspended which made the mounting bracket a bit tricky. I may need to add some extra braces but so far the thing seems pretty sturdy.

There is a second bolt at the bottom of each upright that does not go all the way through. It's barely visible on the far side.

This post qualifies as a Mad Science post which is a happy change from bitching about politics in an election year. I need one of these like a hole in the head, but as I mentioned earlier: boredom.